Sometimes it’s best to just agree for a quieter life – but I know I was right
“DON’T shovel big bits of food into her mouth,” Victoria shouted.
“She’s hungry, I’m just delivering her lunch at the pace she wants,” I replied.
“Well, I don’t want her eating like you,” she answered.
This last statement implies I shovel big bits of food into my mouth and I’d like to deal with that first.
I deny any such accusation, but I do have a big mouth, therefore proportionally it’s right for me, although to the average observer with a smaller mouth, I appear to
eat like a horse.
Secondly, the statement implies that how we feed babies dictates how they will eat throughout life. An interesting point and one that would require further research.
I say this because Victoria and I have an evidence-based approach to parenting.
It’d be pointless me saying “nonsense, I’m an adult. You don’t see me picking bits of mushed up food from the table with my fingers and eating it – a lot”.
Victoria would simply reply: “Who says? Where’s the evidence? What are your sources?”
And I’d be forced to climb down because I’ve only got logic and knowledge to rely on rather than hard evidence.
And for me there’s a hierarchy of information, with the baby forums right at the bottom.
I’ll Google something and read through the various anecdotal posts, which can be reassuring, until there’s a 500-word essay from a ‘worried mom’.
They’re usually American and they will describe a scenario so unimaginably horrific, involving something so very benign, I’ll break into a light sweat.
Top of the tree is the NHS website along with the National
DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR A FIRST-TIME DAD OF TWINS
Institute of Clinical Excellence and the World Health Organisation, which offer facts based on solid research. There are also the scientific studies, which can be both good and bad, to help you win a parenting-based argument.
The problem here is they can vary dramatically in quality but the general rule is anything paid for by a large company, involving one child on a distant island, proving their product is most effective should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Let’s not forget advice from family, who are all invaluable although potentially open to corruption by the person most closely related to them. Obviously, this wouldn’t happen in mine, but it might in yours. If we can return to the current debate involving feeding styles, it was difficult to nail down some solid evidence-based research to dispute Victoria’s theory “shovelling food into Emma’s mouth dictates how she will eat as an adult”. Therefore, I reverted to the time honoured tradition of just agreeing, for a quieter life, content in the knowledge I was probably right anyway.